Finite element analysis of stress concentrations and failure criteria in composite plates with circular holes

In this study, the stress concentration factors (SCF) in cross-and-angle-ply laminated composite plates as well as in isotropic plates with single circular holes subjected to uniaxial loading is studied. A quadrilateral finite element of four-node with 32 degrees of freedom at each node, previously developed for the bending and mechanical buckling of laminated composite plates, is used to evaluate the stress distribution in laminated composite plates with central circular holes. Based up on the classical plate theory, the present finite element is a combination of a linear isoparametric membrane element and a high precision rectangular Hermitian element. The numerical results obtained by the present element compare favorably with those obtained by the analytic approaches published in literature. It is observed that the obtained results are very close to the reference results, which demonstrates the accuracy of the present element. Additionally, to determine the first ply failure (FPF) of laminated plate, several failure criterions are employed. Finally, to show the effect of E1/E2 ratio on the failure of plates, a number of figures are given for different fiber orientation angles. © 2014, Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.